Handsome looking but emotionally empty, this film version of Sean O'Casey's famous play is a cliff-notes version of its original source. The story of the Easter Rising of 1916 is dramatized, but much of the spirit is cut out of the script which reduces the play's four acts down to just under 70 minutes. A young married couple face tensions in both their marriage and in the future of their beloved homeland as rebel forces against the mother country put Ireland at odds with the monarchy. He's determined to obtain freedom, or die trying, and she'd rather he not even risk it. "It's a woman's nature to love just its a man's nature to fight, and nobody can help it more than the other", Barbara Stanwyck says as she comes to terms with husband Preston Foster's determination to fight for a free Ireland.
Something tells me, having not read the original play in its entirety, that Stanwyck's character wouldn't just stand by her man from the get-go, but fight with him as well. Stanwyck's character through most of the film seems to be on the side of just having her man home with her, and no real interest in the cause, which I can only guess is not true of the Irish women of this era. That was old Hollywood's way of keeping women in their place by not putting them out there at the front unless it was absolutely necessary to the plot.
As Barbara Stanwyck remains my favorite classic movie actress, I have been searching for this film for years, having seen pretty much everything else that has been available. Neither the old AMC nor TCM has seemed to have played this, so it is indeed a very rare film, and even collectors I've worked with over the years did not have this film. Like the same year's "A Message to Garcia", Stanwyck's casting seems odd, however, because her Brooklyn accent can't be disguised, and here, she slips in and out of her attempts at a very subtle Irish accent. She succeeded a few years later with a more consistent accent in "Union Pacific", but unfortunately, here, her participation is an obvious mistake. (I must mention, however, that attempting to do a Spanish accent in "A Message to Garcia" was even stranger...)
Preston Foster does much better as the hero, with excellent support by the perfectly cast Barry Fitzgerald and Una O'Connor. Fortunately, O'Connor screeches less here than in other movies, and when she does, it is for the cause, not because of the usual fear or determination to hold onto one of her adult offspring. Veteran character actresses Doris Lloyd and Mary Gordon have great bits at a scene where Stanwyck does finally take some sort of stand. Having seen a stage version of O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock", I can just imagine that this would be far more passionate in its original stage version than in this stream-lined movie which was made to fit double bills. The subject matter, especially coming from a country that had fought for its own freedom only 150 years before, seems more worthy of being dramatized than the treatment it got here.
Something tells me, having not read the original play in its entirety, that Stanwyck's character wouldn't just stand by her man from the get-go, but fight with him as well. Stanwyck's character through most of the film seems to be on the side of just having her man home with her, and no real interest in the cause, which I can only guess is not true of the Irish women of this era. That was old Hollywood's way of keeping women in their place by not putting them out there at the front unless it was absolutely necessary to the plot.
As Barbara Stanwyck remains my favorite classic movie actress, I have been searching for this film for years, having seen pretty much everything else that has been available. Neither the old AMC nor TCM has seemed to have played this, so it is indeed a very rare film, and even collectors I've worked with over the years did not have this film. Like the same year's "A Message to Garcia", Stanwyck's casting seems odd, however, because her Brooklyn accent can't be disguised, and here, she slips in and out of her attempts at a very subtle Irish accent. She succeeded a few years later with a more consistent accent in "Union Pacific", but unfortunately, here, her participation is an obvious mistake. (I must mention, however, that attempting to do a Spanish accent in "A Message to Garcia" was even stranger...)
Preston Foster does much better as the hero, with excellent support by the perfectly cast Barry Fitzgerald and Una O'Connor. Fortunately, O'Connor screeches less here than in other movies, and when she does, it is for the cause, not because of the usual fear or determination to hold onto one of her adult offspring. Veteran character actresses Doris Lloyd and Mary Gordon have great bits at a scene where Stanwyck does finally take some sort of stand. Having seen a stage version of O'Casey's "Juno and the Paycock", I can just imagine that this would be far more passionate in its original stage version than in this stream-lined movie which was made to fit double bills. The subject matter, especially coming from a country that had fought for its own freedom only 150 years before, seems more worthy of being dramatized than the treatment it got here.